Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations has created a
new special edition Range Rover, the Range Rover Astronaut Edition. This new Range Rover Astronaut
Edition will not be available to everyone, it will only be available to members
of the Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut Community.
The Zero Gravity Blue paint was created just for the
Astronaut Edition, and the brand says it was "inspired by the depth and
intensity of the night sky." There's special badging on the sides of the
car and the tailgate and additional hidden badges in the doorjambs that are
only visible when the doors are open. The puddle lamps project an image of
SpaceShipTwo, the craft that will be taking customers to space.
Two discs within the cupholders are made from the
front landing skid of the spaceship that completed the first successful space
flight in December 2018. But if you're hoping for something a little more
special than that, don't worry. Customers will be able to have the piece
replaced with one made from the skid of the ship from their own commercial
flight—complete with a personal inscription featuring details of the
"life-changing experience."
In addition to that skid creation and the white
leather interior with blue stitching, the Astronaut Edition gets a number of
other unique touches. The center console also has a "DNA of Flight"
graphic on the carbon-fiber trim that depicts iconic modes of flight, from
Icarus's wings to the Wright Brothers' plane and the Apollo Lunar Module. The
same graphic is embossed on the rear armrest, while the headrests have
SpaceShipTwo's outline stitched into them. Engraved into the aluminum door
handles is a "Future Astronaut community constellation pattern" that
Range Rover says is a representation of "a global community connected by a
love of space." There's no photo of the handles, so we can only imagine
how ridiculous they look. Range Rover says there are other personalization
options, such as the customer's initials being stitched onto the headrests.
The starting-off point for the Astronaut Edition is
a short-wheelbase Range Rover in the luxurious Autobiography trim level. Two
powertrains are available: the P525 model, which uses a 518-hp supercharged
4.0-liter V-8, and the P400e model, which is a plug-in-hybrid that uses a
turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four and an electric motor for a total of 398
horsepower. Range Rover gives no pricetag for the Astronaut Edition, but it's
surely astronomical.
Land Rover has been collaborating with Virgin
Galactic since 2014, when it offered a space-flight ticket in a contest; the
brand then helped unveil SpaceShipTwo in 2016 by towing it with a Range Rover. Range Rovers will also be the
vehicles of choice for the transport of people to training, to and from
overnight accommodations, and to the spaceport on launch day.
At this point, all of Virgin Galactic's existing
tickets are sold out at US$ 250,000 apiece, and about 700 people have put down
their deposits. SpaceShipTwo seats two pilots and six passengers, and each
journey will last around two and a half hours. The ship will only be in space
for a few minutes, at which point passengers will be able to get out of their
seats and experience weightlessness. Now that the first successful test flight
has occurred and Virgin has been continually testing the crafts and conducting
more space flights, the first commercial flights should begin later this year.
